Cold and flu season are starting in the southern hemisphere, while allergy season is in full swing in the global north. Both of these are linked to our immune systems, which are built out of many different organs, hormones, and free-roaming, invader-killing cells such as T-cells. Because infection can happen anywhere, our immune systems interact […]
Here’s a weird thing about shift workers: Their sleep duration doesn’t always predict how sleepy they feel. Which is weird because… shouldn’t it? After all, somebody who sleeps for a longer period of time should feel less sleepy than someone who sleeps only for a short period of time, right? This paradox isn’t actually that […]
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your research? I’m an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences as well as Director of the Chronobiology, Light, and Sleep Lab in Bethesda, Maryland. Immediately prior to arriving at USUHS, I was in San […]
Thanks for joining me today. You have such an impressive resume. Would you mind telling me about yourself and how you got into sleep medicine? While studying for my undergraduate in biology, I took a class in abnormal psychology, and one of the lectures was about dreams, which piqued my interest in psychology and sleep […]
Welp, here we are yet again. We are once more setting our clocks forward one hour to have more evening light. Why? That’s a good question. The history of Daylight Saving Time (DST) is complex and goes back to 1918 (in the United States). But lately more and more people are asking if it’s even […]
“I didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night.” “I need to get to bed sooner.” “I just can’t wake up in the morning, and I’m not a morning person.” We often think of sleep as a debt to be paid to some mysterious collector. Sleep evades us when we most want it and won’t let […]
Our apps tell you when to avoid light because light exposure is the number one input to your body’s circadian clock (which regulates sleep, metabolism, immune response, DNA repair, physical performance and more). Light at some times speeds up your clock and helps you fall asleep faster, while light at other times can slow down […]
Don’t use your phone before bed! Turn off overhead lights in the evening! Block blue light as you wind down! There are tons of recommendations out there for helping you get to sleep at night that deal with light and technology, and—spoiler alert—I think they’re right on the money. But missing from the standard advice […]
Imagine you’re on a boat. This boat has a sail, which you can put up or pull down. You’re on the ocean, and you’re trying to get to the sweet, sweet island of sleep. You can control the boat’s sail as much as you want. The only problem is: you can’t control the wind. But […]
Although circadian rhythms are being recognized more and more for their relevance to jet lag, shift work, the grogginess people feel after daylight saving time transitions, and health and medicine at large, it’s still a long way behind sleep in entering popular discourse. People know “8 hours a night,” but they don’t know “align your […]
